EnviroMine – Realistic Hardcore Survival

When it comes to survival, an added dose of realism sometimes does wonders for immersion and improves that survival feeling. If you like that sort of challenge, EnviroMine is the mod for you. Adding mechanics like temperature, hydration, sanity and air quality, as well as realistic block physics, it adds a new dimension to survival Minecraft. Read on for the details…

To understand the mod you first have to understand the interface. Here’s a screenshot:

In the bottom left corner you’ll see the temperature bar on the top and the hydration bar below it. The temperature bar has a pretty rainbow meter indicating temperature with 2 slides on it. The full slider indicates your current body temperature (also stated in celsius next to the bar), while the two triangle indicator indicates the outside temperature. The hydration bar is pretty straight forward. On the other side, in the bottom right corner you have the air quality meter and below it the sanity meter. Both pretty straightforward percentages.

Temperature is perhaps the most complicated of the new survival mechanics. The bar indicates your body temperature and the outside temperature. The outside temperature changes according to the weather, what biome you’re in and other factors, making it as realistic as possible. Figuring out if the area is cold or warm should be pretty straight forward. If your body temperature drops far enough (below -5) you’ll get frostbite, which damages you. On the other hand if it raises to above 50 you will be set on fire. Leather armor keeps you warm, but iron armor heats up in the sun making it dangerous in deserts. Mobs are realistically affected by temperature, so sheep for example will persist in the cold, but will die if the temperature is too high.

Hydration is a mechanic that could bother you the most if you’re not prepared. Over time you will slowly lose hydration, more so if you’re running around or in a warm area. If it drops below 5% you’ll start feeling the side effects. You stay hydrated by drinking water from bottles, but the mod adds new types of water. While rivers and lakes will still give you regular water, swamps and jungles give you dirty water which can poison you and oceans give you salt water which hurts your hydration level, while cold biomes get you cold water which lowers your body temperature. You can “smelt” special water bottles in a furnace to get regular water, and you can cool down regular water to cold water by combining it with a snowball in the crafting grid.

The next mechanic is the oxygen or air quality. Deep underground air quality is not as good as it is on the surface, and that’s not good for you. Making air shafts to the surface or placing leaf blocks will increase air quality, while lava, fire and torches will decrease it. Be careful you don’t suffocate in those pesky mineshafts!

Next up is sanity, a curious mechanic affected by darkness and monsters. Your sanity level will drop in dark areas and when enemies are nearby. It will rise in light and next to flowers, so carrying some dirt and flowers with you into caves is recommended. Don’t let your sanity level drop too low or you’ll start going insane (noises, nausea, blindness).

Finally the mod changes block physics a bit, making building structures hard and sometimes even frustrating, as well as making mining dangerous due to cave ins. Blocks can’t just float anymore, and while natural formations are stable enough your house might not be. Materials have different stability indicating how far out you can build with them before something collapses. The system makes sense so you should pick it up in no time.

Get this mod if hardcore survival interests you in the slightest. The mechanics it adds are interesting and provide a real challenge. While some things can get frustrating sometimes, it’s overall a nice package worth checking out. Get it here: